World Building Help: The Problem of Humanity

[kpenguin]

Hey Playground. I've begun embarking on my actual attempt at worldbuilding. The concept is a world tied to the five classical Chinese elements: wood, metal, earth, water, and fire. I have design journal up here on my blog.

The core idea is that all magic comes from these five elements at the non-human races are actually descendants of humans who have been "touched" by elemental magic in some way. Thus, there is a non-human race tied to each element: dwarves for earth, elves for wood, orcs for metal, smallfolk for fire, and selkies for water.

The issue comes with humans. How should I handle them? Should they be able to channel all elemental magic or none? If the former, then they become by and large the most powerful race in the setting. If the latter, then they become the weakest.

Any other input on my setting would be appreciated. This is my first worldbuilding project and it's a work in progress.

[JeenLeen]

If humans haven't been touched by the elements, then it doesn't make sense for humans to be able to channel all of the elements if the a touched bloodline is what enables channeling.

Maybe, on rare occassions (which are common for PCs), a human is touched by an element and thus can channel the power of that one element, giving him a comparable power to any of the races.

You could also have that, on more rare occassions, a non-human race is touched by a power not of their blood. This could have strange reactions in their powers (maybe Fire and Water weaken each other, but Fire and Metal allow you to craft superb weapons or something), and how their society reacts to them can also be important. I'm not as familiar with the Chinese elments as the Western four (Earth, Fire, Water, Air), but if they have opposing or allied elements, that could be the basis for how each element handles one of its members being 'touched' by another.
To limit abuse, these should perhaps be limited to NPCs.


EDIT: Upon reading/skimming your blog, your view of elves has them more akin to the traditional fey myths. I would accentuate that in the description. To me and I think others, 'elf' has an idea of philosophical, magical, and nature-themed creatures that think they are better than most. Maybe even call them 'fey' or 'fairfolk', akin to how you made the name 'smallfolk'.

I did find 'smallfolk' to be odd for a competitive race, thinking they would take offense to it. Maybe change it to a general term used for them, but they identify themselves by their clan/city/organization (as you said that is more rigid than the water-factions); they do not have a general group identity, since that is to lump them with their competitors.
It might also help explain why they haven't unified to conquer weaker races.

[Thinker]

Hey Playground. I've begun embarking on my actual attempt at worldbuilding. The concept is a world tied to the five classical Chinese elements: wood, metal, earth, water, and fire. I have design journal up here on my blog.

The core idea is that all magic comes from these five elements at the non-human races are actually descendants of humans who have been "touched" by elemental magic in some way. Thus, there is a non-human race tied to each element: dwarves for earth, elves for wood, orcs for metal, smallfolk for fire, and selkies for water.

The issue comes with humans. How should I handle them? Should they be able to channel all elemental magic or none? If the former, then they become by and large the most powerful race in the setting. If the latter, then they become the weakest.

Any other input on my setting would be appreciated. This is my first worldbuilding project and it's a work in progress.

Rather than having humans able to channel elemental magic, perhaps allow them to channel some other form of magic instead. That could be divine, sorcery, black magic, etc. Alternatively, you could have it so that regular humans are unable to be directly affected by elemental magic, along with being unable to use it.

Edit: Also consider only allowing humans as PC's, which explains their lack of power compared to other races.

[sonofzeal]

Hmmm....

What if affinity was a spectrum? An Orc could use Metal at 100%, Earth and Fire at 50%, and Wood and Water at 0%. Something like that. A Human might then use all elements, but only at 50% or so. That'd give them an advantage for mixing and matching, but they're never going to even get close to the power of a fully attuned caster inside their specialty.

[JeenLeen]

What system do you plan to use (d20, WoD Storyteller, freeform RP, some combination or mixture of your own)?

I ask because that can in itself shape the world you make. For example, in Storyteller there isn't as much room for modifiers as in D&D, so it can preclude the impulse to create a 'magic item' and wealth-by-level system like what exists in D&D.

Also, how you want to deal mechanically with magic can help how you shape it. If you are creating a magic system that will be using Vancian casting like most D&D, a point system like D&D psionics, or how you buy and improve different specific supernatural powers (most WoD supernaturals), that impacts how magic works in your world.

Back to the world: do the races have 'innate' powers, or is it all channeling that is learned? Do all of the non-humans races channel, or do all have the potential but not necessarily develop it (some become fighters or rogues), or is it that only particular people have the talent.
I saw on your blog that you likened it to Avatar: The Last Airbender, but my memory fails me to remember how the elementalists in that show developed their powers.

Although the answer to that question also effects the system you use: if you want to balance all the types of characters, having similar mechanics for developing fighter skills (be they mundane or channeling) and direct magic could help.

[Stevielash]

Maybe the just channel one of their choice per human, fits the whole adaptable race idea.

[subject42]

You could also riff off of the Promethean myth, and make humans able to steal or otherwise briefly emulate the power of other races when they interact.

It would make for an interesting political situation, to say the least.

[Lapak]

You could also riff off of the Promethean myth, and make humans able to steal or otherwise briefly emulate the power of other races when the interact.

It would make for an interesting political situation, to say the least.

Oh, I like that. I like that a lot. Either have them able to emulate the powers of whatever races are concentrated nearby, or (if you're using an opposing-elements structure) have them automatically able to channel the opposing element as a 'balance' thing.

Hrm. On second thought, while I love the idea, I'm not sure how practical it is in terms of, say, constructing a human PC. But if you can make it work, that would be pretty keen. What system are you using for mechanics?

[Ravens_cry]

You could also include humans who are null. They don't do elemental channelling, they disrupt it. The stronger ones very presence disrupts the warp and weft of magic, tearing the threads loose as it were.

[Thrawn4]

Yay for World Building :-)

Another option might be to enable humans to learn the basics of every element. As the other (magical) races are descendants of humans, humans should have a weak connection to every element.
Whether they are able to learn it on their own or whether they need the assistance of other races might depend on your setting. The former makes for a better character creation and balancing, the latter involves quests for magic and makes non-human races more interesting.

[kpenguin]

Mechanically, I'll be using M&M. I like the system and it doesn't require me to do too much homebrew to match the mechanics to the fluff. This also helps the problem of balance among PCs of different races. Being Human just means that you don't have any power points delegated to (elemental) powers or racial abilities.

No every member of an elemental race can use elemental magic. It requires talent and training, so the majority of the society are non-magical aside possibly from some racial abilities. All selkies can transform into seals, for instance.

[Fayd]

My thoughts: There are multiple routes to take.

1. All elements in balance: Essentially, the human channeler is Aang, with the most powerful able to go "Avatar State" as it were. Aang cannot use 2 elements simultaneously while not in the Avatar state, (at least, during the show) so you have a restriction.

2. Humans can't use magic. Period. Some clever "mages" find a way around this, similar in mind to the summoner character from Tales of Phantasia. Sure, he can't cast any magic at all. Instead, he ritually binds elemental spirits to himself and has THEM do it. It is hard and the spirits could be fickle, leading to some interesting RP moments...

3. Humans channel a completely different source: Light/Shadow, the power of the gods, the absolute power of magic itself, bound by no element in particular. The humans, being older than the other races, reach deep in their search for power... perhaps looking deep into themselves and developing psionics? Dunno, basically this represents the "other" option.


Also, I had a thought for orcs: my DM did something ... similar (?) with the orcs in his setting, insofar as associating them with metal. For an interesting bit of fluff, the color of the orcs' skin is dependant upon the dominant metal in the area they live. Red orcs: Iron rich area. Green orcs: Copper. Black orcs: Silver. Olive orcs: Uranium. And so on and so forth.

[Furnok]

Just an idea you could have humans as a slave race to all of other races, but due to cross breeding some humans can use one of the elements. Then you could use one human as the prophesied one who will lead Humans out from under their oppression to discover a new element? Like soul and give them the power of Psionics are whatever.

[Devils_Advocate]

What if affinity was a spectrum? An Orc could use Metal at 100%, Earth and Fire at 50%, and Wood and Water at 0%. Something like that. A Human might then use all elements, but only at 50% or so. That'd give them an advantage for mixing and matching, but they're never going to even get close to the power of a fully attuned caster inside their specialty.

That's what I was thinking. Maybe, instead of being imbued with shiny magicalness that makes them superior to the pathetic non-magical humans, each non-human race just has an element that dominates in it, while in humans, the elements are all in balance (roughly).

The Wu Xing are weird, if you ask me, just by virtue of being different from the standardized earth, air, water, fire, and void/aether/space/heart/whatever system that most everybody else used. Of course, I suppose that that's part of the appeal. Exalted specifically adopted the Chinese elements as a part of a broad design philosophy of not using all of the same fantasy setting elements that everyone and his brother uses, didn't they? But anyway, I digress.

[RufusCorvus]

If you don't mind mixing your classical elemental systems, you could have Humans represent Void or Ether.

Or, maybe Humans represent the changes between the states?

[Optimystik]

All I have to say - humans need something, or your players will probably not play them. (I know I wouldn't...)

[Doc Roc]

Just make them pick one.

[Connington]

I'd second the idea of making humans anti-magical. It's kind of Tolkeinian, but it seems like it'd work to me. I'm not familiar with M&M's system, but I'm sure you can buy some form of magical resistance. Just give that in some level or another to humans, with certain individuals being actively disruptive instead of merely resistant.

Of course, this does take away one avenue of cool options for human PCs. As I see it however, anyone'd who take a human character with those advantages/limitations stated up front clearly isn't looking to play a mage, so it's moot point. It does leave mages without a "default" culture to select, but I feel that "humans are generic" is kind of a crutch anyways.

[avr]

Given you've got all these races, magic and cultures picked out - what do you need to include humans for? There's no rule saying they have to be in your setting.

[kpenguin]

The anti-magic option seems interesting. On the other hand... why would humans be anti-magic if they were able to be transformed by the elements into races?

I also like the idea of humans using a different form of magic. To keep with the Eastern theme for magic, perhaps they use Chi?

All I have to say - humans need something, or your players will probably not play them. (I know I wouldn't...)

Well, the way magic works with humans really only affects mages. If the player was going to play a warrior-type or a sneaky fella, (s)he might not care. In fact, the advantage of being a human if you're not playing a mage would be that you'd get extra power points to spend on things you want, by virtue of not having to pay for racial abilities.

Given you've got all these races, magic and cultures picked out - what do you need to include humans for? There's no rule saying they have to be in your setting.

Because the other races come from humanity. That's a basic part of the setting, that the races are humans who have been transformed.

[avr]

Because the other races come from humanity. That's a basic part of the setting, that the races are humans who have been transformed.

Yes, but that doesn't necessarily require that there remain people who weren't transformed. At least, not in the part of the setting that the players start in.

[kpenguin]

Yes, but that doesn't necessarily require that there remain people who weren't transformed. At least, not in the part of the setting that the players start in.

Sure, but this gives me the opportunity to have humans have an ancient culture that has a history richer than all the other races. Fun times.

[Connington]

The easiest explanation for that is that your humans, while the original race, aren't native to the land. Instead, they migrated from somewhere with little to no ambient magic. But after enough generations (and it would be a considerable time, if humans coming first is non-trivial), humanity splits off. The ones that remain human are the ones who simply couldn't transform, for whatever reason. (such as a fairly common recessive trait, if you were going all sciencey).

[the humanity]

you could make it so you can buy items that allow channeling of certain elements.

[paddyfool]

Seems like you've got it pretty well worked out.

The anti-magic idea could easily be given good thematic sense, if some/most of those humans that remain remained specifically because they resisted transformation. Up to you if you want to include it, though.

[gallagher]

what if ancient humans made a soul-pact with devils and demons for power, as they are powerhungry and jealous of the other races. it would be an interesting plot hook for humans in the party

[Fayd]

The Chi route would work, lots of positive/negative energy types of things, force effects, lots of body affecting magics. What's more, if Chi manipulation is the true basis of elemental manipulation, you could give the humans the counterspells and the dispels. It would be how the humans are so terribly powerful... they can shut down the enemy's biggest threat: Magic.

Another thing, because the human empire is so old: They would probably have access to a lot of ritual magic, having studied it for so very long. Because the younger races abandoned their ancestors ways to join with an element, they lost access to these rituals. (As a race, not as individuals. I suppose you could have one or two from another race knowing them, and I'm willing to bet after a while they develop some of their own.)

In fact, the humans could have developed into a magocracy from this study, and there are a LOT of directions one can go with that. It also happens to be an unrepresented governmental form.

[Ravens_cry]

The anti-magic option seems interesting. On the other hand... why would humans be anti-magic if they were able to be transformed by the elements into races?

The transformation was a selective pressure. The humans are the creatures whose innate magical resistance and/or nullification meant they didn't transform.

[kpenguin]

After a discussion with some helpful advisers, I've come to decision of having humans able to channel a different sort of magic, qi magic. With the explanation of humanity being ancient enough have the knowledge to use it and being in enough elemental balance to use it well.

[Fayd]

Cool!

...what does it do?